The Avalanche on Friday made the first of what could be a number of trades in this lost season by sending rugged forward Cody McLeod -- the team's longest tenured player -- to Nashville for minor-league center Felix Girard.
Interesting that McLeod, in his 10th season with Colorado, will suit up in the visiting locker room at the Pepsi Center before making his Predators debut Saturday afternoon against his former teammates.
Girard, 22, had three goals, five assists and 29 penalty minutes in 35 games with Milwaukee in the AHL; he's been assigned to San Antonio.
I managed to corral GM Joe Sakic after practice, and he said he wanted to do a favor for McLeod, give him a chance to make a run in the playoffs. While the Avalanche (13-26-1) are hopelessly out of it as they reach the season halfway point Saturday, the Predators (19-16-7) are very much in postseason contention.
"I knew Nashville had an interest," Sakic told me. "I wanted to sit down with Cody. It's a favor for everything he's done. I asked him what he wanted. You think about it, it's Nashville, it's a good opportunity and if that's something that he wanted to do, obviously we know where we're at, we're not going anywhere this year.
"It took him some time and I'm sure he had some tough decisions, but I got a call from his agent (Thursday) and he said he'd appreciate an opportunity there. For all he's done for our organization, the type of person he is, I wanted to give him an opportunity."
Not surprisingly, Sakic said: "We're going to make some more moves" before the March 1 trade deadline.
It's been a difficult season for McLeod, 32, who had his 'A' as an alternate captain taken away by first-year coach Jared Bednar and who was a healthy scratch 10 times. He played what turned out to be his final game with the Avalanche on Thursday, a 4-1 loss to Anaheim. He played 5:22 and fought with Joseph Cramarossa in the second period.
McLeod, who signed with the àvalanche as an undrafted free agent in 2006, has one more year on his contract with a salary cap hit of $1.33 million; Colorado will retain 40 percent of his salary as part of the trade.
McLeod has one goal and 52 penalty minutes in 28 games this season. He had a NHL high 12 fighting majors last season and eight this year. He has spent his entire NHL career with the Avalanche, with 66 goals, 51 assists and 1,359 penalty minutes in 659 games.
"We really believe that Cody will provide that element for us in terms of leadership -- a more veteran player, been there, done that before," Predators GM David Poile told The Tennessean. "Very physical player that can and will support our skill guys."
Girard is in his third season with Milwaukee. He was Nashville’s fourth-round pick (No. 95) in the 2013 NHL draft. A Quebec native, Girard is 5-11, 196 pounds. He has 12 goals, 26 assists and 145 penalty minutes in 172 career games with the Admirals.
Sakic said he was interested in Girard to provide leadership for the young Rampage players.
"He plays with some grit and leadership," he said. "He's a former captain, so he will bring some leadership to our young guys down there."
*****
Here's Matt Duchene:
"We're going to miss Cody, a great team guy, a guy that everybody loved, a fun guy, a lot of energy. But that's part of the business, I've spoken about it before even regarding myself, it's part of what it is. We're in a tough spot this year and we wish him all the best and hope he does really well there. I'm assuming he'll be playing (Saturday). It will be very weird, probably more weird than for us.
"I think we all knew that stuff was going to start happening. There could be more coming, we don't know. I don't think it surprised anybody. I think everybody knows stuff like that is coming, or was coming."
I asked Duchene if losing focus could be more difficult with all the rumors and speculation going around the league.
"The toughest part right now is losing the way we are," he said. "Obviously we want to put an end to that. We just want to push forward, that's the toughest part right now. The business side of it, that's something we're going to have to deal with as individuals as it comes, potentially.
"I can't sit here and be super depressed about losing a teammate, because we don't have time. We have to play (Saturday). We're going to miss him and wish him the best, but we don't have time to kind of think about that."
Here's Gabriel Landeskog:
"Cody was a great teammate, he's been a friend of mine for almost six years. He laid it on the line every single practice, every single game, and he's a great teammate. It's tough to see him go, but we'll see him (Saturday). Coming to a new team, I'm sure he's going to want to show them his best, but it'll be weird seeing his name on another jersey.
"A good friend like that, you don't say goodbye forever, it's more 'See you later.' It's been his home for 10 years, so it's hard. This is part of the business that nobody wants to go through. He's going to miss us in here and we're going to miss him."
"When you're in last place in the league and anybody gets traded it's not going to be a surprise, I guess. I understand that management's got to do what they've got to do. It doesn't get easier at all."
Coach Jared Bednar:
"Cody's been here 10 years and done a real good job for this organization, a well committed guy, a team guy. He gets an opportunity to go to a team that's in the playoffs (race) and hopefully get a chance to win. I'm happy for him to get that opportunity, especially for what he's done for the organization."
The Avalanche lineup for Saturday (fourth line undecided):
FORWARDS Mikko Rantanen -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Rene Bourque Gabriel Landeskog -- Matt Duchene -- Matt Nieto Blake Comeau -- Carl Soderberg -- Jarome Iginla Joe Colborne -- Mikhail Grigorenko/John Mitchell -- Andreas Martinsen
DEFENSE Fedor Tyutin -- Tyson Barrie Nikita Zadorov --Patrick Wiercioch Francois Beauchemin - Cody Goloubef/Eric Gelinas
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Calvin Pickard
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